Metrovacesa's major shareholders Joaquin Rivero, Bautista Soler, and the Sanahuja family have agreed an exchange rate of 1.7 Metrovacesa shares for each share of its French unit Gecina. The deal values Metrovacesa's at EUR 75.67 per share and Gecina's at EUR 129.36, the investors have told the Spanish stock exchange regulator CNMV in a regulatory filling.
Metrovacesa's major shareholders Joaquin Rivero, Bautista Soler, and the Sanahuja family have agreed an exchange rate of 1.7 Metrovacesa shares for each share of its French unit Gecina. The deal values Metrovacesa's at EUR 75.67 per share and Gecina's at EUR 129.36, the investors have told the Spanish stock exchange regulator CNMV in a regulatory filling.
To resolve a long-standing feud over control of Spain's largest property group, Metrovacesa's chairman Joaquin Rivero and board member Bautista Soler, with a joint 33.14%, and the other core shareholder the Sanahuja family, with 39.4%, have decided to create two companies, one called Metrovacesa chaired by Roman Sanahuja, which will focus on Spain, and the other, Gecina, with its business concentrated in France. The Spanish stock market regulator has indicated that it will comment on the plan 'as soon as possible', while 'working very closely' with French peer AMF. The split of Metrovacesa would be effective by the end of the year, Metrovacesa said.
Under the plan, Gecina will hand over to Metrovacesa a portfolio of offices valued at EUR 1.8 bn, while a EUR 437 mln office portfolio in Spain will be transferred to Gecina. In the end, Rivero and his supporter Bautista Soler will control the business in France through Gecina, valued at EUR 9.7 bn, plus Metrovacesa's assets for EUR 437 mln, and the family Sanahuja will take over the business in Spain, valued at EUR 7.48 bn, plus French assets valued at EUR 1.8 bn.
Rivero and Soler said they are planning to consolidate the relocated assets in a new company, to be listed in the stock market, as well as to move Gecina into the Spanish property market. The Sanahuja family, which will own more than 50% of Metrovacesa through the deal, is to launch afterwards a full bid for Metrovacesa or to reduce its interest in the following six months. Metrovacesa's remaining shareholders, the Lara family with 5.17% and Prasa with 3%, may choose which company to go for, Spanish national newspaper EL Pais reported.
